APORIE OF A SHIP CAPITAINESS: STAR TREK AND FEMINISM
Keywords:
science fiction, Star Trek, feminism, gender, identity, hybridityAbstract
This text explores feminist reception of science fiction, particularly the television series Start Trek. The authors point out differences in feminist interpretations of female characters and gender identities as well as changes that took place in that respect in various installments of the series. It is argued that the first two installments – The Original Series (1966-1969) and The Next Generation (1987- 1994) – recreated the patriarchal gender ideology which was marked by unequal power distribution and male privilege, despite some obvious attempts to ”modernize” female characters and identities. More substantial changes in terms of representing female identities began with the third installment – The Deep Sky Nine (1993-1999). These changes became particularly and, at last, prominent in the fourth installment – The Voyager (1995-2001) – when the main character, the captain, finally became captainess Janeway. Some authors consider this to be a historical event for both women and the television. Feminist theory, however, variously interprets the meaning of this historical event. For fierce hard-line critics, the ”most emancipated” woman of the Star Trek universe, captainess Janeway, is either too feminine to be a feminist, or too much masculine – a stereotype actually of a masculinized female leader. There are, however, other more subtle interpretations, embraced in this text, which treat Janeway as a hybrid. Her masculine and feminine features are intentionally put in conflict, side by side, in order to avoid any ”gendered stigmatization”. The vessel that she commands thus represents a ”feminist heterotopia” where incompatible things, people and situations can be placed next to each other.
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